BJP-Shiv Sena alliance intact in Maharashtra (Lead)

Mumbai, March 13 (IANS) Setting speculation at rest, the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday announced an alliance for the forthcoming parliamentary polls following an agreement between them on sharing seats in Maharashtra. “While the Sena will contest 22 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP will contest the remaining 26 in the state,” Shiv Sena’s spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut told journalists.

The two parties will also shortly finalise and launch a joint election campaign all over the state, he added.

The BJP’s state unit general secretary Vinod Tawde added that a formal announcement would be made at a joint media briefing by BJP president Rajnath Singh and Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.

According to the agreement, both the Sena and the BJP would share equally Mumbai’s six Lok Sabha seats - Mumbai South, Mumbai Central and Mumbai North-West going to the Shiv Sena, and Mumbai North, Mumbai North-East and Mumbai North-Central going to the BJP.